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Linda, a Beta-Minus woman who worked in the Fertilizing Room until she accidentally became trapped on the Reservation, is John’s mother. As both the Director and John reveal, she had taken a trip to the Reservation with “Tomakin,” the Director, when she got lost and injured her head. Only after her lover abandoned her on the Reservation did she learn she was pregnant, a situation considered so uncivilized in the eyes of London society that she saw no choice but to stay. This decision, along with her behavior during John’s childhood, reveals just how deeply the World State’s social conditioning affects the individual. Linda foresees alienation from her own kind for being a mother, but she simultaneously refuses to see Indian culture as a legitimate way to live and essentially invites those on the Reservation to reject her as well. She continues to practice conditioned behaviors, such as polygamy, despite explicit warnings not to and resists assimilation at all costs. Linda’s commitment to upholding the principles of her social conditioning at the expense of finding a sense of belonging on the Reservation emphasizes the significant power that the World State has to limit human instincts.
Since Linda never loses sight of her identity as a Beta, she enthusiastically embraces her return to the World State and uses soma as a way of recreating the level of comfort and satisfaction she had before becoming an outcast. She meets the fate of public humiliation that she first feared when John was born, yet through soma, she can separate herself from her son and experience joyous “holidays.” The sense of idealism that soma provides acts as an extension of the World State’s guiding principle of stability, the concept that also informs their hatching process, caste system, and social conditioning. This connection suggests that Linda’s addiction to soma represents an ultimate pursuit of stability and perfection. Her addiction, however, has serious consequences and eventually causes her death, implying that the level of perfection that the State’s motto promises is unsustainable.
